BioWorld International articles from October 2003

BioWorld International archives from October 2003

Actelion acquiring Axovan in potential $191.9M deal.
October 1, 2003... It all started at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. To be more precise, it all started in the cardiovascular research program at the Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical giant. The founders of Actelion Ltd. led that unit, Axovan AG founders cut...

Alizyme reports positive data from renzapride Phase IIb trial.
October 1, 2003... LONDON -- Alizyme plc announced positive Phase IIb results for renzapride in irritable bowel syndrome, claiming the first demonstration of safety and efficacy in the mixed-symptom form of the disease. Alizyme CEO Richard Palmer told...

BRCA1 status in cells could help estimate chemotherapy success.
October 1, 2003... LONDON -- A new era in breast cancer treatment might be about to begin, with physicians able to offer patients a genetic test to determine which types of chemotherapy are likely to be most effective against their tumors. The test would...

Bavarian Nordic takes lead in U.S. smallpox vaccine race.
October 1, 2003... Danish firm Bavarian Nordic A/S edged ahead of UK rival Acambis plc in the race to develop and deliver to the U.S. authorities a third-generation smallpox vaccine that can be safely administered to immunocompromised individuals. ...

Seeking funds, Flamel files for public offering in U.S.
October 1, 2003... PARIS -- Flamel Technologies SA filed a preliminary prospectus supplement to its recently filed shelf registration statement with the SEC relating to a proposed underwritten offering of 3.8 million ordinary shares in the form of American...

Berna Biotech Ltd., of Berne, Switzerland, entered a manufacturing collaboration with Onyvax Ltd., of London.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... * Berna Biotech Ltd., of Berne, Switzerland, entered a manufacturing collaboration with Onyvax Ltd., of London. Berna Biotech will produce Onyvax's cell vaccine for prostate cancer, Onyvax-P, for Phase III trials. Financial terms were not...

BioTissue Technologies AG.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... * BioTissue Technologies AG, of Freiburg, Germany, sold its core business operations to a group of investors under the leadership of Deutsche Industrie Holding GmbH, of Frankfurt. BioTissue filed for bankruptcy in July. The company will be...

Celltech Group plc, of Slough, UK, said Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., exercised its option to extend the development period for the collaboration on phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE-4) inhibitors.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... * Celltech Group plc, of Slough, UK, said Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., exercised its option to extend the development period for the collaboration on phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE-4) inhibitors, enabling Merck to maintain exclusive...

'Crossroads' conference deals with Biotech's ethics, issues.
October 1, 2003... PARIS -- The European Biotech Crossroads, which took place in Nantes, France, on Sept. 25 and 26, was the seventh edition of the annual meeting of the French and European biotechnology industry, and this year ethical issues raised by the...

Facing moratorium expiration, EU hastens stem cell debate.(European Union)
October 1, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Discussions are gathering pace in the European Union on stem cell research in the run-up to the expiration at the end of the year of the EU's self-imposed moratorium on funding embryonic stem cell research. European...

Enterprise Ireland aiming for biotechnology growth at home.
October 1, 2003... DUBLIN, Ireland -- Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government agency responsible for developing indigenous industry, is tapping into the Irish diaspora in an effort to forge links between the fledgling native biotechnology sector and Irish...

UK, even after pro-GM campaign, registers concerns for GM crops.(United Kingdom, genetically modified crops)
October 1, 2003... LONDON -- Genetically modified crops received the thumbs-down from the British public following a national debate that the government hoped would swing opinion in favor of the technology. After holding more than 600 public meetings across...

Gamida-Cell Ltd.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... * Gamida-Cell Ltd., of Jerusalem, reported the official start of the Israel Cell Therapy Consortium projects. The programs were approved recently by the Magnet Committee of the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade...

French seek to bolster biotech via more public funding in 2004.
October 1, 2003... PARIS -- The French government announced a 3.9 percent increase in the public research budget for 2004, following a 1.3 percent cut in 2003, and reiterated its goal of boosting the country's total research and development spending to 2.6...

GenOway SA.(Other News To Note)
October 1, 2003... GenOway SA, of Lyon, France, said it produced the world's first cloned rats, producing one pair of adult and one pair of female rats using GenOway's nuclear transfer-based technology. The company said the animals are fertile with no apparent...

Europe divided on GM crops; meeting brings no resolution.(genetically modified)
October 1, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union members battled one another again on biotechnology at the Sept. 29 meeting of the EU's agriculture ministers, as they split over how to regulate planting GM crops. The EU Agriculture Council has to decide...

Glide Biotechnology & Nutrition Fund.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Glide Biotechnology & Nutrition Fund, of Utrecht, the Netherlands, named Steven Powell as director and partner. Powell is former CEO of KS Biomedix Holdings. Glide, which has 127 million [euro] under management, has investments in the...

Global Life Science Ventures, of Munich, Germany, invested an additional $1.8 million in Coley Pharmaceutical Group, of Wellesley, Mass., as part of the second tranche of a $35 million financing round originally made public in August.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Global Life Science Ventures, of Munich, Germany, invested an additional $1.8 million in Coley Pharmaceutical Group, of Wellesley, Mass., as part of the second tranche of a $35 million financing round originally made public in August. Coley is...

GPC Biotech AG.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... GPC Biotech AG, of Martinsried, Germany, began a Phase III registration trial for its lead cancer compound, satraplatin. The multicenter, global, randomized study will evaluate satraplatin plus prednisone vs. prednisone alone as a second-line...

Intercell AG.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Intercell AG, of Vienna, Austria, has spun out a unit to focus on antibiotics against respiratory tract infections and sepsis. The new company, Bioventis AG, will be privately held and has completed a seed round of financing. Intercell found...

ReNeuron (UK) Ltd.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... ReNeuron (UK) Ltd., of Guildford, UK, said CEO Martin Edwards resigned, following the completion of moves to take the stem cell company private. No successor was announced, but Michael Hunt, currently chief financial officer, was appointed as...

The Genetics Company AG.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The Genetics Company AG, of Schlieren, Switzerland, reported positive data from a trial of its in vitro diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease, which is based on measuring the ratio between the 42-amino-acid and 40-amino-acid amyloid beta...

UK BioBank.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... UK BioBank, the world's largest study of population genetics, published the ethics and governance framework that will regulate the recruitment to, and use of, the 500,000 subject database. That paves the way for the 60 million [pounds sterling]...

Arrow raises 21m [pounds sterling] in first closing of second round.
October 8, 2003... LONDON -- Arrow Therapeutics Ltd. raised more than 21 million [pounds sterling] in the first close of its second-round funding, which should enable it to advance two antiviral products into clinical trials next year and complete preclinical...

BioVex raises 17m [pounds sterling], aims for Phase II OncoVEX trial.
October 8, 2003... LONDON -- BioVex Ltd. raised 17 million [pounds sterling] in a third-round funding, giving it the means to start a U.S. Phase II trial of its lead cancer vaccine, OncoVEX, and move ImmunoVEX into Phase I work. Gareth Beynon, CEO, told...

HIV's method of beating cellular defenses points to drug targets.
October 8, 2003... LONDON -- A family of enzymes that makes proteins ready for processing by the cell's waste-disposal machinery could be an ideal drug target for therapies against HIV. Earlier this year, several studies showed that the Vif protein of HIV-1...

TiGenix first round raises 12m [euro] for cartilage repair phase III trial.
October 8, 2003... Belgian regenerative medicine specialist TiGenix NV raised [pounds sterling]12 million in its first funding round, money it will use to complete a Phase III trial of its ChondroCelect cartilage repair platform and to advance earlier-stage...

British Biotech is now Vernalis; company drops four programs.
October 8, 2003... LONDON -- British Biotech plc is no more. The one-time flagship of the UK sector last week changed its name to Vernalis plc, announced a restructuring that will see it bow out of four clinical programs and reiterated its commitment to...

Flamel raises $62M through sale of its common shares.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Flamel Technologies SA raised about $62 million by selling about 2 million shares of common stock, while other stockholders sold about the same amount. The Lyon, France-based company sold its shares in the form of American Depository...

Genzyme looking to raise scientific profile in Europe.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Genzyme Corp. shortly will unveil two new academic collaborations in the area of autoimmune disease, with research groups in the Netherlands and Germany. The moves are part of an overall trend toward greater "Europeanization" of the...

Abiogen Pharma SpA.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Abiogen Pharma SpA, of Pisa, Italy, received a positive opinion on the designation of OGP (10-14)L (H-tyrosineglycine-phenilalanine-glycine-glycine-OH) as an orphan drug for chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis. The product is a pentapeptide and...

Altana AG.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Altana AG, of Bad Homburg, Germany, said Phase III results of Roflumilast in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) showed that forced expiratory volume in one second was significantly improved in patients receiving 250-ug...

Human epigenome project to study methylation in genome.
October 8, 2003... A German company and a British charity launched a project to examine DNA methylation across the human genome. DNA methylation is a natural process that occurs mostly on cytosine bases and is a regulator of gene activity. While the process...

Patent office threatens to ban patenting embryonic stem cells.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Patent Office is on the brink of excluding all embryonic stem cells from patent protection. If an initial decision reached last week is confirmed, it could amount to prohibiting patenting human embryonic stem...

EuropaBio backs EU study of pricing for orphan drugs.(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- "Prices for orphan drugs need to allow companies to recoup their investment and have an incentive to develop products in this area. Without appropriate prices, no orphan medicines would be available, as there would not be...

Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, entered an agreement with Sankyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo.(Other News to Note)
October 8, 2003... Biota Holdings Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, entered an agreement with Sankyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, covering Biota's second-generation influenza compounds (Flunet) and a comparable and competitive Sankyo compound, a long-acting neuraminidase...

DeCode Genetics Inc., of Reykjavik, Iceland, said it received a milestone payment after identifying a gene.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... DeCode Genetics Inc., of Reykjavik, Iceland, said it received a milestone payment after identifying a gene that in one form predisposes to obesity and in another form predisposes to thinness as part of its alliance with Merck & Co, Inc., of...

Eclipse Clinical Technologies Ltd.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Eclipse Clinical Technologies Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, raised 2.5million [euro] in a funding round led by ICC Venture Capital, a division of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Ltd. Other participants included Seroba BioVentures, the Guinness Ireland...

Epoch Biosciences Inc., of Bothell, Wash., said that Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, launched QuantiTect Custom Gene Expression Assays.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Epoch Biosciences Inc., of Bothell, Wash., said that Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, launched QuantiTect Custom Gene Expression Assays, probe and primer sets for quantitative real-time PCR based on Epoch's MGB Eclipse technology. The...

Fumapharm AG, of Lucerne, Switzerland, licensed the rights to develop and market its oral therapy for psoriasis to Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Fumapharm AG, of Lucerne, Switzerland, licensed the rights to develop and market its oral therapy for psoriasis to Biogen Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. The product is entering Phase III trials in Europe. Biogen will have global development and...

Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, expanded its open-ended strategic alliance with Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, to include greater use of Ingenium technology outside the original research focus on pain management.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, of Munich, Germany, expanded its open-ended strategic alliance with Elan Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, to include greater use of Ingenium technology outside the original research focus on pain management. Ingenium...

Invest, UK.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... Invest, UK, of Liverpool, UK, the British government's worldwide inward investment agency, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta signed a formal memorandum of understanding with the University of Liverpool. The joint...

EU pharma firms anxious about 'biosimilar' products.
October 8, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European drug companies are concerned that the latest stage in updating the European Union's rules on pharmaceuticals could leave their biotechnology products open to unfair competition from copy companies. EU...

Jerini AG.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Jerini AG, of Berlin, appointed Bernt Modig chief financial officer. Modig most recently served as chief financial officer at Surplex AG, an industrial company. Modig also will serve on the company's board and succeeds Alexandra Sowada, who...

MWG Biotech AG.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * MWG Biotech AG, of Eberserg, Germany, said its new MWG Human 40K Array comprises the most comprehensive gene content available to date for the human genome. Its 40,000 human genes are distributed on just two microarray slides. More than...

Net Force Systems Inc., of St. John's, Antigua, acquired a controlling interest in Sinovac Biotech Co. Ltd., of Beijing.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Net Force Systems Inc., of St. John's, Antigua, acquired a controlling interest in Sinovac Biotech Co. Ltd., of Beijing. In conjunction with the acquisition, Net Force's management and directors resigned while Wei Dong Yin was appointed...

Peninsula Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Alameda, Calif., and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, reached a licensing agreement for antibiotic TAK-599.(Other News to Note)
October 8, 2003... * Peninsula Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Alameda, Calif., and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, reached a licensing agreement for antibiotic TAK-599. Peninsula gains exclusive rights, including sublicense rights, to develop and...

Pluristem Life Sciences Inc.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Pluristem Life Sciences Inc., of Halla, Israel, signed research and development agreements with major medical institutions in Israel. The institutions will provide Pluristem with cord blood to further the development of its stem cell...

Progen Industries Ltd.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Progen Industries Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, reported data at the Strategic Research Institute conference held in Cambridge, Mass., showing that PI-88 produced a partial response and some disease stabilization for three months to more than...

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, confirmed today that it is discussing the possible acquisition of Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc., of East Brunswick, N.J.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, confirmed today that it is discussing the possible acquisition of Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc., of East Brunswick, N.J. Savient said Teva expressed interest in paying $365.3 million in cash...

Serono SA., of Geneva, and ZymoGenetics Inc., of Seattle, began a Phase I trial with TACI-Ig in healthy volunteers.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Serono SA, of Geneva, and ZymoGenetics Inc., of Seattle, began a Phase I trial with TACI-Ig in healthy volunteers. The single-dose escalation study is designed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of the protein. TACIIg is a soluble...

University Hospital.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * The University Hospital in Homburg, Germany, reported findings at the European Respiratory Society meeting in Vienna, Austria, showing that patients taking ciclesonide, a new inhaled corticosteroid for bronchial asthma, attained a...

Zeptosens AG, of Witterswil, Switzerland, raised what it described as a "seven-digit sum" in Swiss francs from Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, in a third round.(Other News to Note)(Brief Article)
October 8, 2003... * Zeptosens AG, of Witterswil, Switzerland, raised what it described as a "seven-digit sum" in Swiss francs from Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, in a third round. The investment, Zeptosens said, will enable it to widen the scope of its...

Amersham buying GE in $9.5b all-stock agreement.(General Electric Co. )
October 15, 2003... LONDON -- Amersham plc, the UK's largest life sciences company, agreed to be taken over by General Electric Co. in a 5.7 billion [pounds sterling] (US$9.5 billion) deal that would create a $13 billion turnover business with a vision to drive...

Liver growth factor points to antimalarial drug strategies.
October 15, 2003... LONDON -- New antimalarial drugs that will stop the infection before it has even begun could flow from the discovery that infection of liver cells by the malarial parasite follows activation of a cell-surface receptor. Maria Mota, group...

IP firm raises 30m [pounds sterling] in IPO; rise in technology interest hoped for.
October 15, 2003... LONDON -- IP2IPO Group plc, an intellectual property business, raised 30 million [pounds sterling] (US$49.8 million) after expenses in a flotation on London's Alternative Investment Market. That is 5 million [pounds sterling] more than the...

Pyrosequencing paying Dyax $35m for Biotage subsidiary.
October 15, 2003... Swedish instrumentation firm Pyrosequencing AB is continuing to expand, agreeing to its second acquisition in two months. The target this time round is a U.S. outfit, the automated chemistry separation and purification specialist Biotage LLC,...

Alkermes Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said its partner Janssen-Cilag SA, of Madrid, Spain, received approval from French authorities to market Risperdal Consta for schizophrenia.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Alkermes Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said its partner Janssen-Cilag SA, of Madrid, Spain, received approval from French authorities to market Risperdal Consta for schizophrenia. The product will be launched following negotiation of reimbursement...

Amersham plc.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Amersham plc, of London, said it received an approach from an unnamed suitor, which might or might not lead to an offer for the company. But Amersham added that no agreement has been reached and it plans to make a further announcement when...

Arpida Ltd., of Muenchenstein, Switzerland, and Polyphor Ltd., of Allschwil, Switzerland, formed a collaboration to find antimicrobial compounds acting on selected targets.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Arpida Ltd., of Muenchenstein, Switzerland, and Polyphor Ltd., of Allschwil, Switzerland, formed a collaboration to find antimicrobial compounds acting on selected targets. The alliance will combine Arpida's multidisciplinary antimicrobial...

Avecia Ltd.(contracts )(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Avecia Ltd., of Manchester, UK, was awarded a $71.3 million contract to manufacture three million doses of a new recombinant anthrax vaccine for the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National...

Borean Pharma A/S.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Borean Pharma A/S, of Aarhus, Denmark, said it reached a milestone by producing protein products with high affinity binding in the 100-200 picomolar range. The results demonstrate the company's platform is capable of generating fully matured...

Cellectricon AB, of Gothenburg, Sweden, granted an exclusive license of its electroporation technology to Axon Instruments Inc., of Union City, Calif.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Cellectricon AB, of Gothenburg, Sweden, granted an exclusive license of its electroporation technology to Axon Instruments Inc., of Union City, Calif. Axon Instruments will incorporate the technology into its Axoporator line of products, used...

Flamel Technologies SA.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Flamel Technologies SA, of Lyon, France, reported that it closed its offering of about 4.5 million ordinary shares in the form of American Depository Shares at $33.25 per share. The offering included 2 million shares offered by the company, and...

Ipsat Therapies Oy.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Ipsat Therapies Oy, of Espoo, Finland, presented positive data from a Phase I trial of its lead compound, P1A, at the BioPartnering Europe event in London. Ipsat is attempting to tackle the problem of bacterial antibiotic resistance by...

Nuevolution raises $15m to develop compound libraries.
October 15, 2003... Danish drug discovery firm Nuevolution A/S raised $15 million in the first closing of its Series B financing round, but is looking to land up to $12 million more under the same terms by the first quarter of next year. "That should take...

Financing jump in third quarter; Cryptome, Pharmaxis price IPOs.(Cryptome Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Pharmaxis Ltd.)
October 15, 2003... SYDNEY, Australia -- A company that says it has a new way to identify lead candidate molecules and another firm that says it has a treatment for cystic fibrosis are among the biotech companies that raised a remarkable A$180 million (US$111...

Neurotech begins clinical work with NT-501 product.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... PARIS -- Neurotech SA initiated a Phase I clinical trial of NT-501, its lead encapsulated cell technology product for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa. NT-501 is an intraocular, polymer implant containing human retinal epithelial...

Theraptosis enters collaboration with Robarts Research Institute.
October 15, 2003... PARIS -- Theraptosis entered a research collaboration with Robarts Research Institute to identify new cytoprotective molecules that inhibit apoptosis. Theraptosis is developing therapeutic applications based on compounds that either induce...

Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., of Tokyo, entered an agreement with a U.S. pharmaceutical development venture, NovaCardia Inc., of San Diego, whereby Kyowa Hakko granted NovaCardia an exclusive license to develop and market, outside Asia and Japan, the adenosine-A1 receptor antagonist discovered and developed by Kyowa Hakko.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., of Tokyo, entered an agreement with a U.S. pharmaceutical development venture, NovaCardia Inc., of San Diego, whereby Kyowa Hakko granted NovaCardia an exclusive license to develop and market, outside Asia and Japan, the...

Medical Marketing International.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Medical Marketing International, of Cambridge, UK, announced progress in the preclinical development of a ribozyme-based HIV therapy being developed by its joint venture company, Viratis Ltd. Unlike current therapies that act on the virus after...

MediGene AG.(Other News To Note)(acquiring exclusive worldwide rights for two cancer drug candidates )(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... MediGene AG, of Martinsried, Germany, added to its patent estate in cancer therapies by acquiring exclusive worldwide rights for two drug candidates and the underlying technology from the University of Chicago. The company had previously held...

MorphoSys AG.(Other News To Note)(preclinical studies of MOR101 and MOR102 )(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... MorphoSys AG, of Munich, said preclinical studies of MOR101 and MOR102 demonstrated promising results of their potency as anti-inflammatory antibodies. The data were presented at the Human Antibodies & Hybridomas Conference in Osaka, Japan....

NeuTec Pharma plc.(Other News To Note)(wants to partner antifungal drug, Mycograb)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... NeuTec Pharma plc, of Manchester, UK, is seeking to partner Mycograb, its Phase II antifungal drug targeting the heat shock protein Hsp90 for cancer, following recent advances in understanding of the role of Hsp90 in that disease. Mycograb was...

OncoMethylome Sciences SA, of Liege, Belgium, and Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, entered an agreement for Serologicals to gain access to cancer research technology.(Other News To Note)
October 15, 2003... OncoMethylome Sciences SA, of Liege, Belgium, and Serologicals Corp., of Atlanta, entered an agreement for Serologicals to gain access to cancer research technology. Serologicals' Chemicon International Inc. research division retains all...

Prima Biomed Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, reported that its subsidiary, Cancer Vac, entered an agreement with Progen Industries Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Prima Biomed Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, reported that its subsidiary, Cancer Vac, entered an agreement with Progen Industries Ltd., of Brisbane, Australia, to begin the scale-up manufacture for a therapeutic vaccine in its Phase II trial....

Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, sold the assets of its Pecura business to Merial Ltd., a veterinary joint venture between Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., and Aventis SA, of Lyon, France.(Other News To Note)
October 15, 2003... Qiagen NV, of Venlo, the Netherlands, sold the assets of its Pecura business to Merial Ltd., a veterinary joint venture between Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., and Aventis SA, of Lyon, France. Pecura's technology portfolio...

Serono Inc.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Serono Inc., of Rockland, Mass., the U.S. affiliate of Serono SA, of Geneva, Switzerland, said the FDA approved its new prefilled syringe for Ovidrel (choriogonadotropin alpha injection), making it the first liquid, ready-to-inject therapy for...

Sireen AG.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Sireen AG, of Martinsried, Germany, won a research grant worth 400,000 [euro] from the Bavarian Ministry of Economics. The grant will fund a cancer drug discovery program that aims at finding small molecules effective against a variety of...

Switch Biotech AG, of Neuried, Germany, and 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, will work together to discover and develop small-molecule compounds to treat psoriasis.(Other News To Note)
October 15, 2003... Switch Biotech AG, of Neuried, Germany, and 4SC AG, of Martinsried, Germany, will work together to discover and develop small-molecule compounds to treat psoriasis. Switch Biotech has identified and validated a new target to treat the...

Xenova Group plc.(Other News To Note)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2003... Xenova Group plc, of Slough, UK, initiated a second trial for TN-NIC, its therapeutic vaccine under development for nicotine addiction. About 60 smokers will be recruited in the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Results of the...

GM crop trials results could hurt biotech position in the EU.(genetically modified crops)
October 22, 2003... LONDON -- The prospects of lifting the moratorium on genetically modified crops in Europe were undermined severely when the results of the biggest GM crop trials anywhere in the world concluded that herbicide-tolerant oil seed rape and sugar...

Clinical trial of DNA vaccine in leukemia being planned.
October 22, 2003... LONDON -- A vaccine made of DNA that can produce a 50 percent cure rate in a mouse model of leukemia is expected to enter clinical trials soon as a treatment for the equivalent human disease. If successful, the discovery could bring hopes of...

BioPartnering Europe: will EU follow U.S. biotech markets?(BioPartnering Europe)
October 22, 2003... LONDON -- What does the initial public offering of a drug delivery company in Watertown, Mass., mean for the prospects of capital markets reopening to biotechnology in Europe? Well, one swallow does not make a summer, but speakers from the...